Changchun is the capital and largest city of Jilin province, located in the northeast of the People's Republic of China, in the center of the Songliao Plain.
It is administered as a sub-provincial city with a population of 6,83 million under its jurisdiction, including counties and county-level cities.
The name, which means "Long Spring", originated from the Jurchen language.
Known as China's Automobile City, Changchun is an important industrial base with a particular focus on the automotive sector.
The city’s leading industries are foodstuffs, photoelectronic information, biology and medicine, and automotive. Changchun is the largest automobile manufacturing base in China, producing 9% of the country's automobiles in 2009. As cradle of the auto industry, and home to FAW, China’s biggest vehicle producer, one of Changchun’s better known nicknames is "China's Detroit". There are also such manufactures, as: VolksWagen, Toyota, Mazda, Siemens.
Changchun's main industry is the manufacturing of transportation facilities and machinery. It produces 50 percent of passenger trains (see Changchun Railway Vehicles), and 10 percent of tractors made in China.
The city is also an educational and technically-researching center of north-east China. There is a Jilin University, one of the best in China.
Changchun is an important transportation and communication hub of Northeast China - it is situated as the Northeast Asia's geometric center. South Liaodong peninsula coastline, north to Russia and Eastern Europe, east to North Korea, South Korea, Russia, and west to Mongolia.
Changchun hosted the 2007 Winter Asian Games, the second Chinese City to do so after Harbin in 1996.
Krasnoyarsk city Administration and Changchun city Public Government signed an Agreement about trade-economical, science-technical and cultural cooperation in 2010.
Changchun city Public Government web-site:
